Storyline Online: Read alouds and support from actors

Reading aloud to children has been repeatedly shown to improve their reading, writing and communication skills, logical thinking, concentration and general academic aptitude… as well as inspire a love of reading. The Screen Actors Guild Foundation records well-known actors reading children’s books and makes graphically dynamic videos so that children around the world can be read to with just the click of a Storyline Online video book image.

Many teachers play SAG Foundation’s Storyline Online videos for their students. Doctors and nurses play Storyline Online videos for children in hospitals. And parents and children around the world watch Storyline Online videos millions of times every month.

In 2001, the SAG Foundation was given a generous grant by Verizon to create five digital videos featuring professional actors reading quality children’s books. These imaginatively produced videos fully captured the intricate illustrations, colors …

Tween Tribune: A digital look at current events

Tween Tribune is a great web site with news articles age appropriate for children, tweens, and teenagers. With Common Core advocating for more nonfiction texts for our students this site offers daily reports. Whether Common Core sustains, nonfiction texts will always be important for  Categories of news include: animals, art, book reviews, education, entertainment, fashion, food & health, inspiration, national news, science, sports, and technology. With such a wide variety of topics, teachers may use this site to help pinpoint individual student interest which will help motivate students to read. Promoting reading through text complexity and informational text helps students become involved in a more rigorous content which promotes greater success in career and college.

Tween Tribune offers high-interest articles, leveled text for grades K-12, self-scoring quizzes, lesson plans, critical thinking questions all at no cost!

Here’s how it works

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Free Rice (not just vocabulary practice)

I have always enjoyed word games. Free Rice is just that a simple word game that has been around since 2007. Free Rice is a non-profit website that is owned by and supports the United Nations World Food Program. It is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Free Rice has two goals:
• Provide education to everyone for free.
• Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

If you haven’t visited the Free Rice website lately you will want to check out some new categories that are great for your students when they need a few minutes of filler time. At the top of the vocabulary box look for the words CHANGE SUBJECTS with an arrow pointing right. Click on the arrow to find a broad listing of …